This was a cute story but I didn’t connect with the characters the way I wish I could have. I felt similarly with her other novel. Cute but not necessarily my type

I really appreciated the humor and dialogue in this! I love a good fake relationship set-up. Although it got off to a rocky start trying to get comfortable with the writing. Overall, I really enjoyed this read.

I didn’t want to put this book down once I got going (I would’ve read it much faster had I not been so busy with life, ugh!). I really enjoyed Mhairi’s writing style- it was witty and fun but still tackled real and more serious topics. I thought the characters were well developed and while it had a rom-com feel the characters connection had real / relatable elements. Loved this book!

I received If Never Met You by McFarlane, free, from Net Gallery in exchange for an honest review.
For those of you who like Sophie Kinsella, this is the book for you.
It is a romantic comedy which tells you what we all know, which is, love never comes easy.
When a relationship ends, all hell breaks loose.
What to do!
Is it important to fall in love with a handsome, charming man, or is real love more important
Very entertaining book

Four shiny, funny, heartwarming, in the love of rom-coms and all the sweet, entertaining but also a little tolerable angsty stars!

I think I truly admit Mhairi McFarlene is one of my favorite rom-com writers along with Marian Keyes. She has humorous, sarcastic sense of humor. She knows how to deal with inner feelings, impeccably approaches dysfunctional family problems, traumas, losses and handles those heavy issues with care. When it comes to the angsty parts of her books, they are always well balanced, not to heart ripping, agitated, painful but also not hearts and flowers kind of sweetness you’ve found in them. It hurts you but never breaks you. And she truly knows how to create lovely characters.

I loved her previous works. I lately enjoyed “Don’t You Forget About Me” and I felt like I got another early Christmas gift when I found this precious, lovely book at my shelf. After Simple Minds invasion, this book made me sing Purple Rain aloud (I’m still so sorry for the disturbance I gave. I know I made too many children cry. But let’s look from the bright side! I got paid bribe money to stop singing. Another’s pain my gain!) What can I sing? “I never meant to cause you any sorrow. I only wanted to one time to see you laughing!”

I know this arranged, fake office romances are similar and foreseeable.

Here is the formula:
Mostly the man-whore Alpha male suffers from bad reputation threatening his hardly earned position. So he needs someone to impress his bosses and fix his bad boy image.

We have always steady, hard-worker, tough, mostly smart business woman who hates the guts of the Alpha male but finally she accepts the offer (because of a carrier leverage or a heartbreak or boredom, choose one of them)

But their faking relationship turns into a real one and none of them are brave enough to confess how they feel for each other, so they do stupid mistakes, tell lies, ends relationship. And we see some breakup- suffering- dealing with the feelings- loneliness- more angst, tears, suffering parts.

Then we see a great gesture comes from one of the parties. And they kiss and we get our happy ending.

And the differences of this book from this formula:

Jamie Carter is not pretentious, irritating man-whore. From the beginning he respects Laurie and he always acts like gentleman and walks on the eggshells not to make a mistake. He is ambitious, smart, hardworking Alpha, but when he is with Laurie, who knows where he stands and he never patronizes her, on contrary to
Laurie’s shameless ex Dan, he believes Laurie can do anything she puts on her mind.

And Laurie is not typical dull, carrier oriented, obnoxious girl we read from several rom-coms. She’s smart, funny, sexy. Her confidence wounded because of betrayal of her ex which is normal because they truly grew up and spent nearly half of their lifetimes together. First she accepted this faking game for making jealous his ex who dumps her, telling he doesn’t want children and he impregnates a woman from their office after their breakup! (So he is the winner of slap contest and I personally love to give him best leading douchebag award of the year!) So Laurie is shaken, shocked and her heart is broken. But this faking game helps her to see her own life with another perspective and discover her own family resentments, past mistakes.

Other parts are book fit the formula but I loved both of those characters. Their faults, flaws, past mistakes, suffers, insecurities are easy to empathize. And of course I really enjoyed the writing of the author. She’s a humorous wizard who knows how to play with the words and gives them magical, joyful meanings which always make you laugh, sigh and warm your heart.

So this book was positively amazing break and great choice as a weekend reading after all those scary Halloween overload! I can admit that I even love this book more than “Don’t you forget about me”.

As a summary: I TRULY LOVED THIS BOOK!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/William Morrow Paperbacks to share this wonderful ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

This was a sweet romance with characters that show growth. It was an easy read, and I liked the fact that it was about romance, not just sex.

However, it was a little too drawn out for me. Plus, I have several British friends, but still some of the references went over my head.

I enjoyed the story, but didn't emotionally connect to it.

I want to thank the publisher and net galley for an ARC which did not impact my review.

Laurie and Dan have been together since their freshman year of college. It's been nearly 20 years, now they're both successful lawyers at the same firm and it feels as though their life is pretty great, even making plans to have a baby. Out of the blue Dan drops a bomb that he's unhappy, he doesn't want the life they've built together or kids. Reeling from this news Laurie's not sure how to navigate anything from here, especially the office. Unfortunately for her, Dan's not done making her miserable, when the office gossip mill gets wind of Dan's new girlfriend's pregnancy Laurie decided it's time for payback. Thanks to a broken elevator, she hatches a plan with Jamie the office playboy to help him get the promotion he's after, and help her make Dan feel a fraction as miserable as he's made her.

I have so many feelings about this amazing story. It's such a beautifully well-written book. It was a bit of a slow build, going through the entire messy breakup and fallout with Dan and then rebuilding trust with Jamie. I was so broken for Laurie and what Dan did to her, I think the grief of going through something like that was accurately portrayed. Laurie was such a relatable character for a woman in her mid-30's, feeling so unsure of herself now that her long term partner doesn't want her anymore, the fear of stepping out and trying to find someone new, the comfort of a mid-range mascara and tinted lip balm. I adored Jamie, he was so sweet and kind with tons more depth than I initially expected. I loved how he encouraged and supported Laurie, never being intimidated by her drive and personality, helping her and giving her the courage to stand up to her dad. Another aspect that I really loved was Laurie learning who she was after spending a large chunk of her life devoted to helping Dan advance, learning that she's just as capable and deserving as he is. I could honestly go on about all of the things I loved about this book forever. It was so heartfelt, realistic, poignant, and yet amidst all the drama and difficult subjects talked about, it was hilarious, there were several points were I was absolutely cackling. I absolutely can not recommend this book enough.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved this authors previous works and I'm sure I will continue to enjoy her future books as well

If I Never Met You did not appeal to me. The majority of the book was sad and filled with angst and only the last 5% was an HEA. As small aside: I found it hard to understand all the British in-jokes and slang. I would not actively recommend this book to my patrons.

I'm beginning to see a pattern to these sorts of books: take some singles from their later twenties to mid-thirties, throw in lots of drinking and wisecracking, add a dash of painful backstory to round them out, and watch them come through in the end. I'm all for it, even though all the drinking has zero appeal for me--is it really that impossible to have honest conversations without getting generously liquored up?

In this version, a young biracial lawyer (check the Diversity box) gets dumped by her longtime boyfriend and agrees to a fake revenge relationship with the office playboy. It's great fun, after the literal 20% of the book about the dumping process and subsequent pain. Even I was thinking, oh, get over it already! Bring on the real love interest!

Once sufficient time has passed, and I want another quick romantic story with more drunken young people, I'll definitely try another book by this author.

Thank you to the publisher for the galley!

You know how every once in a while you find yourself barreling through a book at record speed and at the same time wishing it wouldn't end? Well, this is that book! Mhairi McFarlane created characters that were perfectly developed and their slow burn conspirators-turned-friends-turned-more gave me ALL the feels!

I loved Laurie. I loved her because she was a victim of heartbreak, but she wasn't pitiful. Laurie was actually one of the most relatable characters I have come across lately. After being dumped by her boyfriend of 18 years, she finds herself 36 years old and single. She goes through the whole gamut of emotions any one of us would feel in the same situation....questioning exactly how and when she had lost Dan's love and devotion and wondering if she was too past her prime to find someone else and have the family she has always wanted. Coming from emotionally stunted parents, she knows that she had stayed with Dan for so long because he represented stability, and finding herself without that stability for the first time in her adult life, she can do nothing else but think of getting it back.

Jamie Carter is the office ladies man. Devastatingly good looking, he has a reputation for being unlikable to men and acting like a player with women. He and Laurie have had little interaction with each other during the time they have worked together until one day they find themselves stranded together in a broken elevator and hatch a plan that will make Dan jealous and help Jamie look more serious to the bosses at their firm. They conceive a fake relationship that will help them both get what they want and then they plan to go their separate ways once the mission is accomplished.

I'm not going to give away any of the story because it is so enjoyable to read, but I really loved how the author took her time with these two. There is so much more to both of them than how they see themselves and each other. They genuinely take their time getting to know each other, getting to trust each other, and bringing out the best in each other. I just loved watching it unfold.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the editor for giving me the privilege of reading and reviewing an advanced copy of this book.

Enjoy!

This book was definitely different than my normal read and I did like it! At first it seemed a little drawn out. But by the time I was done I did enjoy reading it it definitely not my favorite but worth reading! There's not much suspense and it's a sweet read well written! The heat factor is nonexistent lol I do like more heat with my books but as I said it was an enjoyable read! Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for sharing this book with me!

I enjoyed this book but it was a bit drawn out for me. The humor is good but it is British so a little hard to follow for us Americans. The love story was sweet. Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

Laurie has just been dumped by her boyfriend of 18 years. And know his new girlfriend is pregnant. To make him feel emotionally devastated like she was, Laurie agrees to fake date the office prick, Jamie. Push comes to shove, and the fake-dating turns into something very real.

Pros:
- The actual falling-for-each other is really sweet.
- There is brief mention of Jamie going to therapy when he was in university. Yay for de-stigmatizing therapy, especially for men.

Cons:
- The plethora of pop references will make this book dated very quickly. (Also, as an American reading this very British story, a lot of them went over my head.)
- It's very leisurely paced, which is not my cup of tea in romance. The break-up and feeling sorry for herself lasts for about the first 40% of the book, and then they don't realize they have Feelings for each until the last 8% or so.
- I don't understand the heavy-drinking aspect of British culture. And it's features prominently as a plot-forwarding device too often-- it feels like an excuse rather than good storytelling.
- Jamie does a complete turn-around in his personality. This perpetuates the stereotype that men /will/ change for women if they want to enough. Can I roll my eyes any harder?
- The gossip of Laurie's workplace is horrendous. And yet she's okay with continuing to work there... why???
- The very last bit of the happily ever after is too much. Why do they need to get [spoiler]?! It's completely irrelevant to the plot, and they already had their happily-for-now, so there's no need for the happily-ever-after.

On the chaste-to-steamy scale, this is about a 2. If not for the horrid language and all the binge drinking, I'd say it's appropriate for a twelve year old who has an advanced vocabulary.

Diverse reads:
- Laurie is mixed race: her dad is English and her mom is from Martinique.

3.5 stars

** Thank you to HarperCollins UK, via NetGalley, for this ARC in exchange for an honest reivew **

This was not what I was expecting. It had a lot of tropes that I usually fall for including fake dating, sharing a bed, and a friends to lovers slow burn. However, it fell to just okay for me. Not to say it was bad I just wasn't obsessed. There was a bit too much niche humor and the romance was not central to me. There was a lot of focus on the emotional struggles of the main character which was good (I also liked all the nods to the microaggression and outright aggression towards females). However, I went into this wanting a swoon worthy romance and that came second to every thing else in the book.

All this to say that it was not bad, it just doesn't end with me raving about it. If you're looking for something a little more serious, emotional, with a lot of British wit, and a little bit of romance this is the book for you!

This is my first book from this author and after reading the blurb I was more than excited to read it. However, I was completely disappointed. The thing that killed this story the most for me was the flow of it. The flow of the story was too slow making everything seem to happen in slow motion and I was over it. The characters were okay but they were lacking something for me and I can't pinpoint exactly what it is or was. It's hard to enjoy the characters when you don't enjoy the story and I had to force myself to finish it. The whole story dragged. There are so few things that make or break a story for me and for this one it ABSOLUTELY was the pace of it. I had really hope to enjoy this story but it just didn't work for me.

This was a solid story for me, but I felt like the end was a bit rushed. The beginning was full of all the heartbreak and angst I was craving at the time. The end felt super chaotic. It's interesting because this book is told completely from the heroine's point of view, so you never know for sure what the hero is thinking. It puts you in the same place as the heroine, but that makes the ending a little odd. I don't know if the heroine would have the faith to jump into another full blown long term relationship considering how the last one ended. I also thought it was a little odd that she didn't really consider what would happen to her career. She seems so clear-eyed about the consequences of dating ANOTHER person at work, and then decides it doesn't matter. That rang a little false to me. But, all in all, a solid story.